Council talks jail lease, needs at landfill
Published 7:51 pm Monday, July 22, 2019
During a Selma City Council work session Monday, City Attorney Woodruff Jones informed council members that the city could soon be on the hook for the cost of medical treatment provided to Selma inmates detained in the Dallas County Jail on misdemeanor charges.
Currently, the city pays $200,000 a year to lease 16 beds in the county jail, which comes out to $12,500 per accommodation, but the county picks up the tab for any medical treatment the inmates require – with the tab for the beds coming due in December, Jones said the county is poised to vote on pushing for the city to pick up the medical bills.
Selma City Council President Corey Bowie advised that the council take up the new contract proposal through the city’s Public Safety Committee and Selma City Councilwoman Angela Benjamin wondered aloud how much other cities in Dallas County are paying for their inmates’ accommodations in county jail.
“We can’t foot the bill for everybody,” Benjamin said.
Selma City Councilwoman Miah Jackson expressed a similar concern, asking whether the rate was per person or per day and noting that the county gets money from the state as well.
“We need data,” Jackson said.
Jackson stated later in the meeting that the current rate that the state is paying for inmates housed in county jails is $1.75 for meals and no expense beyond that – that rate is set to increase to $2.25 later this year, but the rate currently being paid by the city amounts to more than $34 per day.
On top of the cost of housing city inmates in the county jail and the possible additional cost of covering medical needs for them, the city also owes the county $30,000 for other public safety-related expenses.
Elsewhere in the meeting, Black Belt Community Foundation (BBCF) Executive Director Felecia Lucky asked the council to contribute $5,000, a matching gift, to support the organization’s ongoing work throughout the region.
Lucky talked about BBCF’s Head Start program that launched two years ago and has since served more than 300 children across the Black Belt.
Further, Lucky states, the group has provided nearly $700,000 in grant awards since 2005 to area organizations, including ArtsRevive and the Black Belt Benefit Group.
BBCF is making similar requests from cities and counties across the area.
“Every county has been given this challenge,” Lucky said, noting that she had spoken before the Dallas County Commission earlier in the evening. “We don’t want to leave any money on the table. The more we can get, the more we’ll be able to give back.”
The council also heard from Mozell Williams, who oversees the local landfill, on the need for new equipment and employees.
Williams, who has appeared before the council before to discuss the issue, said the landfill is in “dire need” and will most likely face consequences from the Alabama Department of Environmental Management (ADEM) when it inspects the landfill next month.
According to Williams, the new machine, a packer – workers are currently using an excavator to do the work of a packer – will cost around $135,000.
Bowie also reviewed the process and timeline by which a new chief of the Selma Fire Department (SFD) will be selected.
According to Bowie, the position has already been listed and the search committee has been established.
The deadline for submissions will be July 31 and candidates will begin being interviewed in meetings open to the public by early August.
Bowie aims to have a candidate selected, and a nomination brought before the council, by the end of August.